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by stabmebeforeyoukissme



Series: Before Now [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Other, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 05:37:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19805839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stabmebeforeyoukissme/pseuds/stabmebeforeyoukissme
Summary: Part 1 of a short series for the BAU team





	Home

He presses the cold glass bottle to his cracked lips and glares at the nameless grave. Naturally, he can distinguish the name of his father’s corpse lying six feet under but his mother hadn’t wanted to pick a headstone just yet. Phrases like, ‘Loving Father’ and ‘Beloved Husband’ would never sum up the man his father was. Try ‘Abusive’ and ‘Drunk’, try sitting through awake and listening tensely to sorrowing friends and unaware family forcibly express their condolences to you. Biting the inside of your cheek, holding back the honest truth. 

He hates the way vodka burns and that he can’t stop. He knows he’ll pass out in the next hour and throw up on the graveyard’s wilted grass tomorrow morning. He’s left boarding school to take care of Sean. He can’t accomplish that by getting drunk and stealing his mom’s infinite supply of alcohol.

The morning sun strikes him in the face, and stomach acid spews out of his mouth. Tenderly wiping the side of his filthy mouth on his collar, he stands up and instantly notices a blanket draped over him and his younger brother at arms distance. His bones pop and crack as he stands up, reaching out to seize the blond boy. He has a hangover but still carries his baby brother down the nameless streets that he’s hardly seen since he was at the boarding school his father had shipped him off to two years ago. Reaching a lonely house on the end of an empty street tells him he’s home before he realizes his definition of a home is broken.


End file.
